-Does the idea of space travel even hold your interest any more?
As many of you I'm sure have heard, the last space shuttle has launched today. (Much to my dismay as I was going to go fly to Florida to watch it if it launched on Sat/Sun/Mon)
This is an odd thing, because... well we really don't have a unified plan for its replacement.
I could go on for quite a while on how I feel about space exploration, what we should do, and where we should go next.
But first I would like to hear your guys' opinion first.
-What do you think our next step should be?
-Does the idea of space travel even hold your interest any more?
Feel free to add anything else you want to add related to space travel.
We, as the general human race, should really pour more funding into space exploration and, ofc, terraforming.This..... since people say the world is going to end sometime, we have to colonize another planet. then we will all be safe :3.... How we would go bac and forth between planets... not sure...
The more planets the human race colonizes, the same way goes our chances of survival as a species.
As many of you I'm sure have heard, the last space shuttle has launched today. (Much to my dismay as I was going to go fly to Florida to watch it if it launched on Sat/Sun/Mon)
This is an odd thing, because... well we really don't have a unified plan for its replacement.
I could go on for quite a while on how I feel about space exploration, what we should do, and where we should go next.
But first I would like to hear your guys' opinion first.
-How do you feel about the idea of not having any "large" human rated launch vehicles on the planet at this time?
-What do you think our next step should be?
-Does the idea of space travel even hold your interest any more?
Feel free to add anything else you want to add related to space travel.
I think we should find a different life form, there HAS to be another life form, if so i hope they are not hostile...
Space travel has interested me since i was 4 i got a bigass Telescope and wished that i could travel to Mars, or the Moon...
Truthfully, I don't like the human species, they are an abomination who destroy everything in it's path, I'm not saying everybody is like that, but most of us are. We are, how you would say, smart, but dumb at the same time. We lack the intelligence to realize we are destroying ourselves (I.E. Wars) but are smart enough to create advanced technology that we can bend to our whim. It's a bit weird IMO.
Truthfully, I don't like the human species, they are an abomination who destroy everything in it's path, I'm not saying everybody is like that, but most of us are. We are, how you would say, smart, but dumb at the same time. We lack the intelligence to realize we are destroying ourselves (I.E. Wars) but are smart enough to create advanced technology that we can bend to our whim. It's a bit weird IMO.
Misanthrope you say
You might wanna be happy that you're human, be cause you could have been born a fly or a dog or a Dinosaur or something....
Truthfully, I don't like the human species, they are an abomination who destroy everything in it's path, I'm not saying everybody is like that, but most of us are. We are, how you would say, smart, but dumb at the same time. We lack the intelligence to realize we are destroying ourselves (I.E. Wars) but are smart enough to create advanced technology that we can bend to our whim. It's a bit weird IMO.
the thing is...what are you comparing the human race to? Also there are only a select few human beings that are smart enough to create that technology, not all humans can create advanced technology only the select smart ones.
I'd imagine standing on Venus assuming I wasn't being crushed would be like looking underwater.
Well, for all of you who want to progress in space exploration (that includes me), too bad. Obama and Congress cut off almost all funding to NASA and a huge portion of NASA's employees will be laid off.
I guess there are still the cosmonauts, maybe...
Truthfully, I don't like the human species, they are an abomination who destroy everything in it's path, I'm not saying everybody is like that, but most of us are. We are, how you would say, smart, but dumb at the same time. We lack the intelligence to realize we are destroying ourselves (I.E. Wars) but are smart enough to create advanced technology that we can bend to our whim. It's a bit weird IMO.
Hotgreen, I like you. You're a cool guy. But this post is so full of shit it defies logical explanation. The human species is doing a ton better than it was centuries ago, and anybody complaining that we are gradually making the world go to shit has no idea what they're talking about.Yeah, wars are cool now. Either 6 guys come in and kill 'the most evil terrorist in the world', or they push a button and your city suddenly disappears.
For example, wars aren't as destructive anymore. Back in the ages, if you got wounded you died. No exception. Nowadays, a wounded soldier dies 1/8th of the time. Ultimately, boundaries are now forever set by diplomacy and politics, so the national boundaries aren't going to change unless there's some huge anarchy movement.
Furthermore, you might bitch and moan about sickness and disease and cancer and crimes and everything when it's been the best it's been since a hundred years ago. Teen pregnancy rates last year were the lowest since 1940-something. Crime rates are a similar story, although it's a different year. So are general sickness rates. Never before in the entire human history have we been able to completely eradicate a disease. We've eliminated countless diseases in the past hundred years.
So please, don't be one of the people that bitch and moan about the state the world is in.
Yeah, wars are cool now. Either 6 guys come in and kill 'the most evil terrorist in the world', or they push a button and your city suddenly disappears.
Uh, problem!
>Space technology progresses
>Wars happen
>(http://www.luft46.com/jhart/jhsang-4.jpg) (I know this particular craft will never happen, but the concept remains)
>(http://www.luft46.com/jhart/jhsang-5.jpg)
it would probably be easy to see and bring down
Well, for all of you who want to progress in space exploration (that includes me), too bad. Obama and Congress cut off almost all funding to NASA and a huge portion of NASA's employees will be laid off.
I guess there are still the cosmonauts, maybe...
Actually, they're giving private companies the green-light to go do space exploration themselves because private companies are much for efficient than government institutions.
Don't worry, people, there is no end to space exploration. There's just an end to government-funded space exploration. Good riddance, too, NASA's been basically scratching their balls and sending the occasional rover or space telescope for the past 42 years.
I'm just going to point out the obvious since I have nothing else really to say thats comparable to everything thats been said.
IMO, we should be worring about Earth itself a little more than Space exlporation. We can't be entirely sure we'll find another habitable planet any time soon, and if we just slack off and put all the money into space exploration, we'll be screwed on day.
Anyways, I'm not a genius when it comes to this, just felt I had to put this in here.
I'm up for some critisizm.
xrain, i absolutely love reading your posts.
thats all.
also on topic, the scientist in me says we need to go to mars, just to say we have been there.
You would be right, if we actually did put all our money into space exploration.
Stuff like this needs a balanced approach, we could have the most awesome spaceships ever, but it wouldn't mean much if they didn't have a healthy humanity to back them.
But, the amount of money and research going into earth studies, cant even be compared to how little is going into space exploration.
Think about this, if we didn't have an extreme case of global warming to compare yourself to (Venus) It's entirely possible our detection of it could have been delayed several decades past the point where we have a chance to do anything about it.
Space exploration also tends to spin off technologies that benefit a lot of people, without the Apollo and the shuttle program, we flat out wouldn't have any sort of computer processor even close to the capabilities that we have today.
The moon also has the potential to solve the world energy problems, for the next 1 million years. On top of that, it would be one of the most clean and efficient energy sources even known.
It would do this with fusion power. The main problem with fusion power today, is the two sources main sources of fusible materials (deuterium and tritium) are inefficient in their energy production.
The problem is the generation of high energy neutrons, these are extremely damaging to the reactor, create the most amount of residual radioactivity, as well as you cant really harness the energy they produce very efficiently.
The Deuterium + Deuterium reaction produces no neutrons, but it doesn't make much energy either, so it's tough to get a net-gain out of it.
The Deuterium + Tritium reaction creates lots of energy, but most of that energy is in the form of high energy neutrons.
The Tritium + Tritium reaction produces double the amount of high energy neutrons, tritium is also significantly more scares than deuterium.
The butter zone is Helium-3. It's an isotope of regular helium, and it produces significant amounts of energy, and no neutrons. The issue arises in the fact the only source of it we have is decaying neuclear weapons. So we have only produced around 155kg since 1955.
This is where the moon comes in.
The sun produces a significant helium-3 component in the solar wind. The earth doesn't benefit as the atmosphere deflects the particles. The moon on the other hand doesn't have an atmosphere. so its free to collect in the top 6 feet of the lunar soil.
So eventually we go through the top layer of the lunar soil. Collect the helium-3, and ship it back. This should give us plenty of time to devise the means of harvesting it from the gas giants instead, giving a much larger and more efficient source of helium-3.
So I could possibly extrapolate that space exploration could potentially go a long way towards solving the worlds climate problems...
Xrain, you should fly to the next launch at Vandenberg so we can chill. I live 15 minutes from the air force base.
So only the humans are the only things going to live?
If we move to another planet -> No trees or other animals
If we just preserve Earth -> Everything is fine
Not to mention we probably will destroy that planet too